Oliver Glasner: ‘Crystal Palace put questions over Premier League home form to bed with Aston Villa win’

Oliver Glasner was pleased Crystal Palace put to bed questions over their Premier League home form after a 4-1 win over Aston Villa on Tuesday evening.

The Eagles had only won twice all season at home in the league before Unai Emery’s side visited Selhurst Park.

Yuri Tielemans went closest to opening the scoring in the first period of the match when he glanced a header just wide of Dean Henderson’s right-hand post.

Jacob Ramsey put the ball in the back of the net in the 25th minute after being played through the Palace defence – but linesman Tim Wood correctly flagged the Villa attacker as offside.

Palace took the lead against the run of play in the 28th minute when Ismaila Sarr reacted quickest inside the area to pounce on Chris Richards’ header that was pushed back into a crowd of bodies by Villa stopper Emiliano Martinez.

The Senegalese international should have doubled his tally and Palace’s advantage nine minutes later in a quick counter-attacking move which saw Eberechi Eze cut the ball back perfectly to the ex-Watford attacker.

However, Sarr’s first shot was saved by Martinez and he could not apply the finish at the second time of asking.

Villa thought they had equalised in the 41st minute when Morgan Rodgers finished off an Ollie Watkins cutback along the face of goal, but VAR intervened and adjudged Watkins to be offside when trying to beat Maxence Lacroix for pace.

Unai Emery’s side eventually pulled one back six minutes into the start of the second half when Robin Olsen, who replaced Martinez at half-time, sent a ball down the other end of the pitch for Watkins to head on to Rodgers.

The former Middlesbrough attack spun Richards inside the box and finished beyond Dean Henderson.

Palace re-took the lead before the hour mark when Mateta picked up the ball from Eberechi Eze inside the area and took one touch before firing a left-footed shot beyond Olsen.

Sarr grabbed his second and put Palace firmly in control in the 71st minute when he turned Daniel Munoz’s cross into the bottom right-hand corner.

Eddie Nketiah scored his very first Premier League goal for the club since joining from Arsenal in a £30million switch in the summer when he finsihed off Tyrick Mitchell’s cross along the face of goal in the 91st minute.

“I’m pleased I don’t have to answer these questions anymore,” said Glasner.

“I mentioned it in the pre-match press conference, it was my fault that we talked too much about winning in the last home game because we wanted it so much.

“We didn’t get the focus on what we had to do to win. Maybe we needed those two defeats against Brentford and Everton because they really hurt. 

“We took the right measures and decisions. In the last pre-match, we never talked about winning – only how we want to play and what we want to do as a team.

“It’s great to watch in this moment. The crowd are so loud and the fans are singing.

“Our players enjoyed this game.” 

PICTURE: ALAMY